Privacy Policy

Privacy

APTA and PTCAS have developed policies to prevent the exposure of personally identifiable information as set forth herein to limit the distribution of sensitive data to those situations that require it, and to permit distribution of nonsensitive, directory information wherever a useful purpose can be served. Data submitted by or on behalf of an applicant is used for the PTCAS application process in communication with the PT program, as part of the application, for record keeping, research, and statistical purposes. PTCAS protects the information provided. If information is provided to third parties for educational research purposes, it does not contain any of the following personally identifiable information about the applicants, parents, family or household members of the applicant in the application file:

name

address

a personal identifier such as the person's social security number, student number or biometric record

other indirect identifiers, such as the person's date of birth, place of birth, and mother's maiden name

other information that, alone or in combination, is linked or linkable to a specific person that would allow a reasonable person who does not have personal knowledge of the relevant circumstances, to identify the person with reasonable certainty

Researchers must agree not to publish any particular category or data set if the number of individuals in the category or data set is 25 or less.

Information about applicants and students is, of course, disclosed to the physical therapist programs to which an applicant applies or matriculates. With the exception of monitoring reports related to multiple acceptances, information submitted to PTCAS by a PT program is available only to that institution. Programs that participate in PTCAS are advised not to disclose or share individual applicant data with other individuals or offices at the institution for student recruitment purposes, unless explicitly granted permission by the applicant.

PTCAS will make every attempt to protect any personal information submitted to it via e-mail. However, e-mail is not secure against interception. Any sensitive information emailed to PTCAS is provided at the risk of the sender. If you are concerned that the content of your communication is especially sensitive, you should consider contacting PTCAS by phone or sending the information by postal mail instead.

This privacy policy is subject to change and applies only to information on the PTCAS website, and not to other APTA websites or outside sites linked to by APTA's websites. By using the PTCAS website, you signify your agreement to the terms of the privacy policy.

Security

Security is a priority at PTCAS. We are committed to protecting the security and confidentiality of your information. We use a combination of state-of-the-art technology and methods to help ensure that your online sessions are secure.

Any personal information you send to us is scrambled. This technology, called Secure Socket Layers (SSL), protects information you submit or receive through this site. In addition, any sensitive personal information that you send to our website (eg, social security number) is held in a secured environment, protected by tools such as firewalls or database field encryption. The technology is designed to make using your personal data and credit card information on the Internet as safe as possible. PTCAS protects the privacy of your credit card information, name, address, e-mail and all other information you provide us via the on-line payment process. No representation is made, however, regarding the unconditional security of such submissions.

Other sources claim it is statistically safer to submit your credit card information electronically via an SSL site than it is to give your card to a store clerk. SSL technology is reported to be so safe that VeriSign, the PTCAS certifying authority, warrants it against fraudulent use for up to $100,000.

The SSL technology depends on secure Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that are certified by an authority such as VeriSign. Secure URLs always begin with "https://" (not "http://"). If you use a browser that recognizes SSL, you will be notified that you are on a secure page. Any information you enter on such a page is encrypted, sent over the Internet in encrypted form, and de-encrypted at our server. If your browser doesn't support SSL technology, you will receive an error message when trying to access our SSL page. If this error occurs, logout of your application and download the most current Internet Explorer browser.

Once we receive your credit card information, it is accessible only to designated PTCAS administrators.